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Strategies to overhaul the “Slaugtherhouse Civilization”

By Bharat Chandra das

The present civilization is clearly a “Slaughterhouse Civilization”! There is an act of murder in every fibre of it’s construction. Ever increasing greed for economic gains is the goal. We all know, this experiment has been disastrous. The rebelliousness on the values and culture of a sustainable past propagated by scientists and leaders combined has entered the blood of every citizen of the modern world. It has taken the form of violence against nature. It is definitely an act of TERRORISM!

“Once on a morning walk in Rome, my spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada, the founder-acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, was being asked how Krsna consciousness could solve the various problems of modern society. When asked about terrorism, Srila Prabhupada replied that people should not expect to do away with terrorism as long as the vast majority of human beings were behaving as animals. It is natural that one ferocious beast fight with another, he said. So we shouldn’t be surprised when persons already accustomed to inhuman acts become terrorists. In other words, as long as the members of society are being taught that certain kinds of exploitative sectarianism are good and that certain kinds of violence for sense gratification are approved (such as animal slaughter and abortion), then we should not be surprised to see a few agitated members of such a society committing acts of terrorism. Violence will always breed violence.” Editor, BTG 1984, “A Krsna Conscious Response to Terrorism”

“You are killing innocent cows and other animals-nature will take revenge. Just wait. As soon as the time is right, nature will gather all these rascals and slaughter them. Finished. They’ll fight amongst themselves-Protestants and Catholics, Russia and America, this one and that one. It is going on. Why? That is nature’s law. Tit for tat. “You have killed. Now you kill yourselves.” They are sending animals to the slaughterhouse, and now they’ll create their own slaughterhouse. [Imitating gunfire:] Tung! Tung! Kill! Kill! You see?… Srila Prabhupada, “Slaughterhouse civilization”,JSD 6.5

If such a civilization has to change, then we will need to reform its roots, its wrong premise and foundation upon which it is standing, the false structure that it is displaying, expose the anomalies of the society and repair the system. In other words, we need to overhaul.

NEED FOR OVERHAUL

Overhaul is to look at the solutions comprehensively and one by one take out, repair, place new parts and fixtures, lubricate and give a new look. And educated good citizens, in other words, vaisnavas, are meant to do this.

“The Krsna consciousness movement is not a sentimental religious movement; it is a movement for the reformation of all the anomalies of human society.” Srila Prabhupada, Purport, C. C. Adi 17.141

“PRABHUPADA: Cow slaughter is the greatest sinful activity. They don’t know what they are doing. Therefore, a thorough overhaul is required; otherwise their stool-bound brains can’t be cleansed. Yes, we are washing your brain, because you have so much stool in your brain. We are sweepers engaged on behalf of God to wash the stool from your brain. We have to do it.” Srila Prabhupada, Conversation, Calcutta, India, Jan 1977

There is a verse in Srimad Bhagavatam. It says that those who are spiritually educated must respond to sufferrings of the material world, else their spirituality will just get wasted like pouring water into a broken pot(S. B 4.14.41). Hence it becomes an intrinsic responsibility of all good advised citizens of the world to combinedly act for the benefit of the common good in such a way as to overhaul the present abominable culture. Else, our practice of morality, spirituality, religiosity is just a waste of time.

THOROUGH OVERHAULING - A MULTI PRONGED STRATEGY:

The strategies are clear. It requires planning and organization. It requires those convinced, committed, enthusiastic, determined and free from lethargy to get ready!

“Therefore, O Arjuna, surrendering all your works unto Me, with full knowledge of Me, without desires for profit, with no claims to proprietorship, and free from lethargy, fight.” Bg. 3.30

Let us go over the strategies to overhaul one by one.

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“SRILA PRABHUPADA: The main thing is, society must learn to discriminate between pious and sinful activities. Human beings must engage in pious activities, not sinful activities. Otherwise, they have no brain. They are no better than animals. And from the moral point of view, do you like sending your mother to the slaughterhouse? You are drinking the milk of the cow-so she is your mother-and after that you are sending her to the slaughterhouse. That is why we ask. Where is society’s brain?” Srila Prabhupada, TQE 5a.

“It is necessary for the leaders of the Krsna consciousness movement to start educational institutions in different parts of the world to train children, starting at the age of five years. Thus such children will not become hippies or spoiled children of society; rather, they can all become devotees of the Lord. The face of the world will then change automatically.” Srila Prabhupada, SB. 4.12.23

***** Strategy: a) Organize traditional Gurkulas everywhere b) Organize Varnasrama Colleges everywhere Srila Prabhupada, Room conversation, May 21, 1975, Melbourne

Any more in this category? Add to it and let us discuss (this point holds good for all strategies mentioned below).
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“MAHAMSA: Also another party of five devotees, they have started on the bullock cart sankirtana, going village to village… And one person came to the temple in Hyderabad and met me. He said that “After your devotees had a program in our village, the farmers in the evening they were coming and doing kirtana instead of just…” Previously they were not doing anything, but now they are coming after farming. In the evening they are collecting and they are doing kirtana together. SRILA PRABHUPADA: Just see how quickly there will be response. Therefore I was insisting, “Go village to village, town to town.” Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s prediction, prthivite ache yata nagaradi.”

***** Strategy: a) Organizing Bullock cart sankirtana parties in each district b) Organizing Namahatta in each village c) Reviving& Organizing Traditional-folk-arts to preach Bhagavatam d) Organize artistes with help of BBT to present vedic culture
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Prabhupada: That is my desire. Don’t waste time for bodily comforts. You have got this body. You have to eat something. You have to cover yourself. So produce your own food and produce your own cloth. Don’t waste time for luxury, and chant Hare Krsna. This is success of life. In this way organize as far as possible, either in Ceylon or in Czechoslovakia, wherever… Save time. Chant Hare Krsna. Don’t be allured by the machine civilization.

Hamsaduta: Yes, Prabhupada.

Prabhupada: This is soul-killing civilization, this kind way of life, especially European countries. Anywhere you can inhabit it. It is not very difficult. A cottage; you can produce your own food anywhere. Am I right?

Prabhupada: And money, spend for Krsna-for Krsna’s palace, for Krsna’s temple, for Krsna’s worship, gorgeous, as gorgeously as… Not for false… This is the human civilization. And to organize this, varnasrama will help you to divide the society-brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya-as there is division in the body. That will help. Don’t waste human form of body for sense gratification. I wanted to introduce this. Now I have given you ideas. You can do it. You are all intelligent. For Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s para-upakara. .. So you do good to others. Not exploit others. Any human being who has been bestowed by this body has the capacity to chant Hare Krsna. Give them chance and make situation favorable. Is that clear? Srila Prabhupada, Conversations, Vrindavana, Oct 8, 1977
***** Strategy: a) Train grhasthas and bramhacharis in Varnasrama Colleges and encourage them to form communities. b) Organize community projects under as many ISKCON temples possible c) Encourage Grhasthas to invest and purchase land in their names but collectively live together as a community with common goals. Develop standards. d) Tie up with eco village movement and preach Krishna consciousness. e) Revive existing community projects all over the world.
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“But this deity worship is very serious program, and it must be kept to the utmost highest standard and never allowed to be neglected.” Srila Prabhupada, Letter, 16 Feb, 1972

“Foodstuffs that are offerable to Visnu are called naivedya. Abominable items can never be visnu-naivedya.” Padma Purana, C. C. Adi 7.173

“If you can continue to offer foodstuff like fruits and milk in the evening, you can introduce that system. There is no harm. Your second question, ice cream purchased from the market may not be offered. Because such ice cream contains sometimes undesirable things, which we should not offer. We must offer to Krishna only first class prepared foodstuff, especially made at home. We shall try to avoid as far as possible goods purchased from the market and offer to Krishna.” Srila Prabhupada, Letter, 21 Oct, 1968

***** Strategy a) Spread awareness so that deities should be offerred bhoga made from pure ingredients obtained from the community.
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“Go-raksya means protection to the cows. Instead of protection to the cows, they are killing the cows. How you can have perfect society? Cows must be protected. It is so important animal. It is giving the you nectarean food milk, and from milk, you can save your children, you can save your diseased persons. And how it is that you take the cow’s milk and send it for slaughterhouse. Oh, this is not, not at all human civilization. Here it is said go-raksya. You should give all protection to this important animal. Krsna does not say that you should protect the pigs and hogs or other animals. He especially meant the cows because cow is very important animal to the human society.” Srila Prabhupada, Lecture, Stockholm, Sept 7, 1973

“So open restaurants in any part of any city and make nice kacauris, srikhanda, puris, halava, and so many other delicacies. And people will purchase them. They will come and sit down. I have given the format… The Vedic culture offers so many nice, delicious foods, and mostly they are made with milk products. But these so-called civilized people-they do not know. They kill the cows and throw the milk away to the hogs, and they are proud of their civilization-like jackals and vultures. Actually, this Krsna consciousness movement will transform the uncivilized people and bring the whole world to real civilization.” Srila Prabhupada, June 1974, Valency, France

PUSTA KRSNA: What we’ve been doing with the dead cows is burying them, there’s no…, everything’s wasted. Srila Prabhupada is proposing that why not the butcher take, we give free, he simply returns us the skin of the cow, and with the cow hide we properly tan it, we can make mrdanga heads for the khol, and shoes, straps, whatever may be needed. The idea being that in the Western countries especially, people are accustomed to eating animals, animal flesh. So we have no objection. PRABHUPADA: Oh, yes. Because a class of men will demand to eat the flesh. You cannot stop it. So we are giving free: you eat. And from economic point of view, we require the skin for our mrdanga making. So give us the skin. That’s all. June 29, 1976, New Vrindavan, Room conversation

But especially we request cow protection, because it is ordered by Lord Krsna. Go-raksya: “Protect the cows.” That is our duty. And economically, also, it is very useful. Krsna has not recommended this for nothing Srila Prabhupada, JSD 6.6: A Formula for Peace

***** Strategy a) Organize bhojanashalas with traditional organic foods and delicacies in every district b) Organize Ahimsa leather project c) Organize Panchagavya products and ensure use of these products instead of cosmetics and medicines of rendering industry of slaughterhouse. d) Organize home grown products of rural communities. e) Organize Cold press oil from Ox run Oil press units that can be established in node of several villages f) Organize Ox driven flour units. g) Organize Ox run carts for touring large ISKCON centers/communities h) Organize barter system of exchanges of goods in communities
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“The leaders of the government must be very honest and religious because otherwise all the affairs of the state will suffer. Unfortunately, in the name of democracy, rogues and thieves are electing other rogues and thieves to the most important posts in the government… Because of the importance of the Krsna consciousness movement, people should be Krsna conscious and should not vote for anyone who is not Krsna conscious. Then there will be actual peace and prosperity in the state. When a Vaisnava sees mismanagement in the government, he feels great compassion in his heart and tries his best to purify the situation by spreading the Hare Krsna movement.”

“Therefore if we want a happy and tranquil political situation, we must select leaders who eat krsna-prasadam. Otherwise the leaders will eat meat and drink wine, and thus they will be asamskrtah, unreformed, and kriya-hinah, devoid of spiritual behavior. In other words, they will be mlecchas and yavanas, or men who are unclean in their habits. Through taxation, such men exploit the citizens as much as possible, and in this way they devour the citizens of the state instead of benefiting them. We therefore cannot expect a government to be efficient if it is headed by such unclean mlecchas and yavanas.” Srila Prabhupada, C. C. Antya 1.92

“Prabhupada: No, we have got experience. If there is a good man, he’ll do, he’ll act very nice. That we have got experience. Just like if a man is honest, you can trust him. This is our experience. So similarly, if the leaders be good according to this standard, then the whole human society will be happy. This is our propaganda. We are not after the post, but we have to disclose this rascaldom, that “All these rascals, animals, fools, they are taking the post of leader, and you are suffering repeatedly, but you have no sense that ‘How we can be happy with this Nixon and company’s leadership?’ ” So therefore we want to disclose the fact, that’s all. We have no ambition. Just like we are brahmanas. We have nothing to do, but according to Vedic civilization, the brahmanas guides the ksatriyas how to rule. So our position is to reform the politicians. We are not going to compete with them, we have no business, neither we have time. But because people are suffering-we want everyone to be happy-therefore we want to reform these rascals. That is our goal. What we shall do taking part in politics? We have no business. But our real aim is how people will be happy. That is our real aim. So these rascals are leading, misleading. Therefore we want to check them. Is that all right? Is that all right?” Srila Prabhupada, Morning Walk, Los Angeles, Dec 8, 1973

***** Strategy a) Organize training for youths to get into top leadership ranks b) Organize training to the politicians c) Organize training to the military d) Organize training to the judiciary e) Organize training to the administration
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“Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu started His movement of nonviolent civil disobedience to the order of Chand Kazi. It is not necessary to commit violence to stop the opposition from hindering a movement, for one can kill their demoniac behavior with reason and argument. Following in the footsteps of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, whenever there are obstacles the Hare Krsna movement should kill the opposition with reason and argument and thus stop their demoniac behavior. If we became violent in every case, it would be difficult for us to manage our affairs. We should therefore follow in the footsteps of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who disobeyed the order of Chand Kazi but subdued him with reason and argument.” C. C. Adi 17.130

In the present day also, people all over the world may join together in the Krsna consciousness movement and protest against the present degraded governments of the world’s godless societies, which are based on all kinds of sinful activities. Srimad-Bhagavatam states that in the Age of Kali, thieves, rogues and fourth-class people who have neither education nor culture capture the seats of governments to exploit the citizens. This is a symptom of Kali-yuga that has already appeared. People cannot feel secure about their lives and property, yet the so-called governments continue, and government ministers get fat salaries, although they are unable to do anything good for society. The only remedy for such conditions is to enhance the sankirtana movement under the banner of Krsna consciousness and protest against the sinful activities of all the world’s governments. C. C. Adi 17.141

***** Strategy a) Organize mass weekly civil awareness sankirtana programs and distribute books, pamphlets and other literatures on Simple living-High thinking. b) Organize world holy name week all over the world with more enthusiasm with the above goal c) Organize civil disobedience sankirtanas for wrongs in the society (E. g. revival of Yamuna river, etc) d) Organize training Ksatriyas in Varnasrama Colleges e) Organize training for Ksatriya clan (such as Gurkhas and Jats) in Krishna Consciousness.
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“The offenseless chanter of the holy name of the Lord is as auspicious as the Lord Himself, and the movement of pure devotees of the Lord all over the world can at once change the troublesome face of the world.” Srila Prabhupada, Purport, SB. 1.16.33

“If the intelligent men, or the brahmanas of society, would follow the rules and regulations, certainly the entire face of this present world, which is in such chaotic condition, would change, and people would be happy and prosperous.” Srila Prabhupada, SB. 4.18.13

“Yuktahara viharasya yogo bhavati siddha. This is called yukta. We should eat simply for keeping healthy condition. We shall sleep simply for keeping healthy condition. But if you can reduce, that’s nice. But not at the risk of becoming sick. Because in the beginning, because we are accustomed to eat voraciously, so don’t try to eat less artificially. You eat. But try to minimize. Therefore there are prescription of fasting. At least two compulsory fastings in a month. And there are other fasting days. The more you can reduce your sleep and eating, you keep good health, especially for spiritual purposes.” Srila Prabhupada, Los Angeles, Feb 17, 1969

***** Strategy: a) Organize training of Japa workshops and to avoid 10 offenses b) Organize training of culture of loving relationships everywhere c) Organize training for maintenance of personal health & hygiene
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TAKE ALL STRATEGIC POINTS - GET INVOLVED!:

We have all the strategies in hand. We have the order of the almighty handed down by great saints. Let’s take all strategic points for fighting the demons depeding upon our inclination, ability and guidance whether we are a brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya or a sudra. This arrangement will help in proper cooperation to serve together within our abilities.

“The granddaughter of this Nethaji (as he is called), Subhash Candra Bose, comes to visit Prabhupada infrequently. She made a remark that Srila Prabhupada is like Nethaji in that he has gone outside India to organize a movement of Vaisnavas. Srila Prabhupada liked that. He said, Yes. He said that we have organized an army now and it is in the right hands. You Americans are resourceful, you can do it. The frame is there, now organize. This mission is para-upakara. We don’t want to exploit anyone. Today’s so-called civilization keeps people in the clutches of maya. They are being misled, they are lusty, and they are demons. Our movement is against this. It is really para-upakara, to help the people, and you will be recognized by Krsna. Simply go on working for this movement. Take all strategic points for fighting. There is a declaration of war by us against maya. No, not actually maya, (she is a servant of Krsna). She would relinquish her grip on everyone, but because they remain demons she cannot. That’s her duty. Actually, we are fighting not with maya, but with the demons.” Biographies, SDG, Feb 8, 1977